Surprisingly, a massive new Dota 2 patch was released overnight, with the 7.37 patch notes bringing back one of the most controversial items the game has ever seen and adding a ton of new innate abilities for heroes who felt underserved by the last update.
The patch notes kick off with some general balance changes and then we get to the items, where one returning neutral item has already got the community talking. While numerous items such as Fairy’s Trinket and Martyr’s Plate have been cycled out, the Iron Talon has been cycled back in. Known to most as the item that allowed jungling, it was controversial removed years ago and briefly had an appearance as a neutral item as well. Now it is back as a tier two neutral item and functions in largely the same way it always has.
Outside of some significant item balance changes the biggest part of the new Dota 2 update is to heroes, specifically to inates and facets. Heroes that felt a little underwhelming since the massive 7.36 patch have either been given reworked or completely new abilities and facets in the hope they will have more options to choose from.
Earth Spirit gets a completely new facet after players panned one of his original options, while Enchantress gets a new innate that makes creeps under her control to more damage to heroes after widely being considered to have the worst innate in the game previously. You can see all the changes in the full patch notes.
Elsewhere in the Dota 2 7.37 update Medusa gets a big rework that includes a new basic ability called Gorgon’s Grasp that fires a load of arrows into the sky that then land in different groups. Any enemies hit by the arrows take damage, are rooted, can’t turn and take 100 physical damage per second. It’s too early to tell how much this will change the hero but it looks like Medusa might be about to become less about constant farm and could show up to fights earlier.
Other changes of note in the update include the removal of Kunkka’s Torrent Storm ability, Sand King getting some major nerfs to make sure he isn’t seen in pro play for at least another year and somehow Dark Seer gets another buff.
While we weren’t expecting a major Dota patch anytime soon it does make sense with The International just a few weeks away. Typically Valve likes to give teams a good few weeks to practise on the new patch before the biggest event of the year kicks off, and the bonus is that we all get some new changes to play with as well.
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